Millenium
Story - Kenya
31st December, 1999
 |
10.30am -31st December, 1999. Truck had behaved herself all the way from South Africa, through 4 countries and several thousand miles until December 31st, 1999!! After an excellent time in Tsavo West National Park, we heard a worryingly loud rattling in the engine and broke down on the road to Mombasa.
Decisive action needed.
Who the hell was going to help us on New Years bloody Eve. We flagged
down a Matatus (taxi) and I(Charlie) went to look for help leaving Mark
by the road cursing and twiddling his thumbs. Our last words to each other
were "See you in 3 hours......"
The Matatus driver's
brother turned out to be a mechanic so I was dropped off in Mariakani
(50km before Mombasa) to seek his help. The mechanic first had to fix
his own engine before helping us. I waited 3 hours............
After much sweating and fretting, the Pick-Up was 'kind of' fixed and
we trundled off to find Mark, stopping briefly for sodas as Robert and
his helpers were in need of refreshment........
Meanwhile back
on the road.............
...a kindly Norwegian had stopped and offered to tow Mark all the way
to our destination, Tiwi Beach. He couldn't refuse as this would save
us £200 for emergency road rescue on New Years Eve. He was also pretty
sure that he'd meet me on my way back from Mombasa. Nearing Mombasa, no
sign of me but Mark met my original taxi coming the other way. Relieved,
Mark gave him an urgent message to find his brother and let me know what
had happened. "Hakuna Matata," (No problem) says the taxi driver and Mark
arrives at Tiwi Beach ecstatic, thinking that I would soon meet him there
in time to celebrate the new Millenium..... He gets out the champers ready
for the reunion.... At 6pm as it starts to get dark, he begins to worry...
Mark and Truck must
have passed us while we stopped to buy sodas so when I found Truck and
Mark disappeared, my mind was frantic.... Muggers, Hijackers, Murderers?????!!!!
To top it off, Robert's Pick-Up chose that particular moment to break down again and we had to flag down a lorry to tow us back to Mariakani!
We arrived back in
Mariakani and received a vague message that Mark had driven to Mombasa
looking for me.
AND FINALLY......
3 hours, several phonecalls
and countless enquiries at police stations later, I finally found out
where Mark was and was able to leave a message at 8.30pm. Too dark, too
late and too dangerous to take a taxi to Tiwi, I spent New Year celebrations
in Mariakani village with a bunch of strangers; Mark was on a palm fringed
beach with a bunch of strangers - both of us thoroughly pissed off on
what should have been THE biggest party night of the trip.
Well, it's an original story for the grandchildren I suppose!